DISTRICT

During inclement weather season, look for messages about school closure and delayed start times on the District’s home webpage under the ‘Alert’ button and under ‘Announcements.’ Information also is posted to the District’s Facebook site and relayed on KONP 1450 AM and KSQM 91.5 FM radio stations, as well as KOMO 4, KING 5, KIRO 7 and Q13 Fox television stations. The district also sends out email and telephone calls, so make certain that your child’s school has the correct contact information.

The district is seeking input about the annual printed Parent Guide and Calendar. Go to www.surveymonkey.com/r/MFPL3KF and complete a quick survey with eight questions. The link to the survey is on the main page of the district website, located at www.sequim.k12.wa.us. The survey will be up and available through Feb. 22. Thank you in advance for your participation.

There is no school on Friday, Feb. 17, or Monday, Feb. 20. The district office will be closed on Feb. 20 as well for Presidents Day.

The next school board meeting is at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21, in the boardroom. The public is encouraged to attend and time is set aside for public comment. A board work shop follows the regular meeting.

HELEN HALLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Happy Chinese new year! Students are learning about other cultures in Tiffany Malean’s classroom. Since 2017 is the Year of the Rooster, a chicken, housed in his own cage, was a much honored guest in our classroom.

To share our new knowledge of some of the customs of the Chinese culture, the class helped decorate a large dragon costume and put on a parade for the kindergarten classes.

Special thanks to paraeducator Donna Bruneau, who constructed the dragon head at home. Teacher Malean was the head of the dragon and inside the dragon were John Hale, Alex Johnson, Gye Bradley and Michael Bragg. Kellan Gilliam and James Bardin were drummer boys with dragon hats and Safira Johnson–Bowles was the red lantern holder and our leader.

The class also made red envelopes containing good wishes to share with their kindergarten friends.

GREYWOLF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Kim Knudson’s second-graders wrote about what they will do to be a better person in their family, school, community or for the world:

“I want to be nice to my classroom, my whole entire classroom every single year!” Breaonna LaTour

“For my new year’s resolutions I have three. For my first resolution is to listen better because I don’t listen very well. For my second one is to help others with their work so they can learn more. My third one is super and nice. I will make people feel better because I could make new friends.” Brynlee Dearinger

“It is 2017 and I need to think of some resolutions. I will do three. My first one will be to be a better example for other students. My second one will be to make more friends so other people won’t feel so lonely. And my third one will be to speak up for myself and for other people. And those are my three resolutions. I wonder what my new year’s resolutions will be next year.” Addison Drew

“My resolutions are to be a better friend because I have been a bad friend and get better Pokémon because I collect them and spend more time with my cat because she is cute.” Kaydan Scouller

“I will make more friends because I like friends. I will be healthier because I like to be healthy. I will put my name on my paper.” Jaycob Rector

“I want to be a super gamer because lots of people are. I want to help someone every day because I want to be nice. I want to be nicer to my teacher because she is the best.” Jasper Flath

More than 380 students and families recently joined Greywolf staffers for a fun dinner and dance party to celebrate earning their 2016 Title 1 Part-A National Distinguished School Award. Teacher Greg Newton kept the party going as event emcee/deejay. Greywolf’s PTA donated spirit items in school colors to add to the festivities. The highlight of the night was unveiling our award banner, now displayed in the gym.

Thanks goes to the Haller Foundation for sponsoring our celebration and to teacher Jennifer Lopez for organizing festivities.

Some comments from attendees included:

“We are so proud of our hardworking students!”

“We had a blast, thanks!”

“Thank you all so much for your commitment to our kids!”

“Loved seeing the kids have fun together!”

“The dance was awesome and I didn’t think I could love Greywolf any more until I walked in and heard Bon Jovi playing!”

“A job well done, thanks to the staff for their hard work!”

“Thank you, great job! More dancing please!”

“It was great to just have fun! We should do this every year!”

“Operation Valentine” is a project that allows students (and teachers, parents and anyone in the community) to create a handmade Valentine card to be delivered to a U.S. veteran or active duty service person. Support for these outstanding heroes from the public is paramount to their service and their dedication to our country. As some of the recipients of these cards may be hospitalized or in convalescent homes their journey can be long and is often painful. Other recipients of the cards may be actively deployed or an elderly veteran, a simple gesture of encouragement from a student will brighten their day and children will enjoy the opportunity to correspond or share their drawings.

The cards will be distributed to both local and regional veterans as well as active duty and reserve service people. This is an initiative that can help make a difference in the lives of these men and women, both young and old alike. This program has been a huge success over the past six years. Last year, more than 1,600 cards from local students were collected.

SEQUIM HIGH SCHOOL

Sequim High School was represented by the following students at last Saturday’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Puget Sound Winter Regional Conference at Pacific Lutheran University: Sonja Govertsen, Erin Dwyer, Vita Olson, Joie Darminio, Kyah Fukunaga and Kianna Miller. The team was very successful competing in multiple business and computer science events.

The following students qualified for the FBLA State Business Leadership Conference in Spokane on April 19-22 in these events: Electronic Career Portfolio — Vita Olson (first place); Job Interview — Kianna Miller (third place); Mobile Application Development — Erin Dwyer, Kyah Fukunaga and Sonja Govertsen (first-place team); Public Speaking — Kianna Miller (first place), Erin Dwyer (third place).

To raise funds for travel to state competition, FBLA students have organized a fundraiser workout event at Sportsfit Center (located at 1102 E Washington St. in Sequim) for 9 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18. Admission is $10 per person for a 55-minute workout.

Student Leadership has organized a club fair during lunch periods on Feb. 21. We wish to encourage students to learn more about the variety of available school extracurricular activities. This project is important because all of our clubs will succeed as we gain more members. We hope that everyone will feel the need to come to the club fair and maybe even join a few clubs. — Erin Dwyer, FBLA vice president, treasurer and student store manager

Nellie Bridge’s senior English class is reading “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,” by William Shakespeare. Students were given the assignment to choose a favorite quote from the play and print it on a T-shirt, using fabric paint. Here are some of the quotes chosen by students:

Sara Gregg chose a famous line by Hamlet’s friend, Horatio: “Good night, sweet prince … ”

Christian Rocha chose a line recited by the player queen in Hamlet: “Sleep rock thy brain … ”

Elijah Britt chose his favorite quote from Hamlet’s last words: “The rest is silence.”

Michael Larsen likes Hamlet’s puzzling reply to a question from Polonius, giving the quote his own shortened version: Words X 3 (“Words, words, words.”)

The state mandated HIV/AIDS presentation has been rescheduled due to our recent snow day. The presentation will now be at 10:45 a.m. Monday, Feb. 27. All seniors, remember, attendance at this presentation is a graduation requirement.

Nellie Bridge has a pen pal project right now with four of her classes. They have connected with students from another high school. Here are excerpts from Sadie Woods (SHS) and Jaylien Young (The Noble Academy, Chicago, Ill.):

From Jaylien to Sadie, Nov. 16, 2016

Wassuh Sadie

I’m happy to write you back. You may already know but my name is Jaylien. My nickname is Jay or Jaybug, whichever you prefer. It’s nice to hear from someone in a totally different area. I live in Chicago, IL. It’s really big here and the lights are always shining downtown. That’s the best place to be when you’re out here … You asked me to keep it real so I guess this is as good of a time as any to keep it real with you … I am a 15-year-old freshman in a high school named The Noble Academy … This school is very strict but I’m learning to deal with it …

I have so many questions to ask. Where you like, do you feel like you are able to know most of the people? Are there any festivals there? Also, what are some exciting things that’s been happening in your life? Do you have any talents you don’t mind sharing? I can sing, rap, and I play football and basketball. Do we have any talents in common? I’m happy to be your new pen pal, lol. Is it weird I didn’t know what that was until just a few days ago? I don’t know … Some really weird things I do is sit up in the middle of the night and stare out of the window humming beats that I’ve heard …

I wonder how it is to live in a small town sometimes. I wonder if it makes you feel at home. Or does it make you feel bigger than just some small human in a big world. I also wonder if I would know everyone. I imagine walking up the street and yelling across the street to each neighbor knowing their names. Or a milk truck driving by beeping its horn at me and me automatically knowing who it is driving the truck. As you can see I may watch a little too much TV…

I want to know more about you. Hopefully you write back to me and possibly I get to know my new pen pal more. What hobbies do you have? What type of things are you into? If you want to I would wanna know more about where you live. Do you feel at home?

Sincerely, Jaylien Young, Your new pen pal

Sadie to Jaylien, Dec. 12, 2016

Hey Jay, it’s me again!

So I got your letter last week and I have been so excited to write back! Thank you for answering back with so many things to talk about …

Living in a small city is good and bad. It’s good because you know a lot of the community and the community is incredibly involved with my school. Bad note of it is … there’s really not much to do. What I do love about it is being so close to the water and mountains. I love going to the water just to hang out and relax. And seeing the mountains covered in snow is beautiful. You asked if I feel at home, and I can say yes with all my heart because I do. I moved here when I was finishing third grade and at first it was incredibly different because previously I live in Georgia and Nevada. But the kids I’ve been going to school with are truly a blessing because we’re all so close with each other because of lot of the kids here have been here since birth so we’ve seen each other grow and it’s a nice feeling and an amazing place to live.

Finally, you asked me if I had anything exciting going on in my life and I do kinda. It’s not happening right now, but after I graduate in June, I will be moving at the end of summer to Milwaukee and be there for about 10 months with a program in AmeriCorps. And what I’ll do is be a mentor for kids who are having a hard time with school and life and teach them and get them on track to graduate on time and all that good stuff! I’m really excited to start that chapter in my life because I am a huge people person and I love to help others and I really want to make a change in the world.

So enough about me, I want to know everything about you! Like your family, how big is it, what are you doing for the holidays, all that jazz? If basketball and rapping doesn’t work out, do you know if you want to go to college or what you want to do with your life? And tell me about where you live. Like the similarities and differences, and do you feel at home? Also, tell me more about your school and the people who are there! I just want to know everything and I’m excited to get your letter back!!

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Till next time, Sadie Woods

From Jaylien to Sadie, Jan. 9, 2017

Hiya pal! (Lol)

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas. You asked before I left to break to tell you all about me and my family. Well my family is really big. Lots of grownups and the kids outnumber them. If I had to guess how many people were in my family I would be a hundred percent sure that it will be more than 94 people. Well living of course. My family at the moment doesn’t have anyone older than 56. My grandma would be over 60 if she was still here with us … Is it weird that you can miss someone and you never met them or heard the pitch of their voice? That’s the way I feel about my grandma …

You said that you were moving soon after you graduate? … If so I would wanna hear what you expect from a city. What do you hope to find in the city actually? I wanna know more about you and what you do on the daily or things you’re going through. How do you deal with certain situations? How do you make positivity out of a negative situation? It can be personal or not. That’s your choice really. I hope you had a good winter break. What did you do? I hope to hear from you again soon.

Sincerely, your pen pal, Jaylien Young

Spring sports paperwork is due by 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22. The first day of spring sports is Feb. 27.